Rice faming alone can generate N73 billion for Abia State yearly, Alex Otti says in his latest pitch for Government House, Umuahia on the ticket of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
The former Diamond Bank Chief Executive Officer (CEO) told journalists in Lagos that agriculture, originally the mainstay of the Abia economy employing over 70 per cent of the population, is neglected by the current administration.
“Little or no attention is given to agriculture by the state government,” he lamented.
“Nigeria spends a whooping N365 billion a year on importation of rice alone. That is N1 billion per day.
“If a state like Abia puts its house in order, and decides to support agriculture, and decides to support rice milling, and empowers our people with the correct seedlings and support the mill plants, we can easily reduce that import bill by 20 per cent.
What that means is that over N73 billion can be saved from rice import bill.”
If N73 billion is added to the N104 billion Abia proposes as 2015 budget, he said, the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would soar, yielding jobs.
Abia can also make so much money from cocoa, he added.
“I will give you another example. You probably would not know that Bende produces cocoa. And when they produce the cocoa, they sell the cocoa beans. By doing that, you are exporting jobs. We don’t add any value. We just sell them in their natural state.”
Otti said if he becomes Governor, “we can convert the cocoa beans to cocoa butter. We can add value. We can even add more value from cocoa butter to chocolate, to Ovaltine and all that.
“If we do that, we will save scarce foreign exchange, we will create jobs for our people and people will be happy.”
He promised to give special attention to Aba because of its economic value to the state, saying he would create a Ministry for Aba Affairs to re-energise its industrial and commercial drive.
“The entire infrastructure in the place (Aba) has collapsed. It is difficult for businesses to survive in that kind of situation. Our people are very hardworking, very intelligent people, very creative and industrious.
“All they require is for the government to create the enabling environment for their businesses to flourish. And if those infrastructure are not there, the state becomes less competitive for businesses.”
Otti said he gleaned from research that there are about 50,000 shoemakers in Aba whose businesses have been crippled because of poor infrastructure.
“These were the same shoemakers that created the Aba-made fame. Most of them are now idle. Why are they idle? They produced their shoes under very harsh economic conditions.
“You buy your generator, you buy your diesel, you buy your water.”
As a result of these burdens, which he said included poor road network, “the price of these shoes, which are not as sophisticated as the ones imported from China, is so high.
“Why will people buy Aba shoes that are more expensive than Chinese shoes that are better and less expensive?”
Otti insisted that he has the training, integrity, and experience to turn around the state and make it more competitive so that businesses can bounce back.
“In the past, there were companies that were the pride of the state. The Aba of those days boasted of companies like Aba textile, Nigerian Breweries, PZ. Towards Ogbor Hill, you would find the international glass industry, metallurgical plant. Towards Osisioma, you had indigenous entrepreneurs. Virtually all of them have gone.
“The major industries Umuahia was known for, like Modern Ceramics Industry and Golden Guinea, are all dead. So unemployment has become the lot of the youth in Abia State.”